The Mic's Ted Culley talks you through a mid- November rendez-vous with Lindisfarne in Sheffield.
On the 16th of November, Ria and I took a train across the Peak District to see Lindisfarne play at the University of Sheffield’s Student Union. Although markedly different to every other gig that I’ve been to in Nottingham with The Mic, the evening was a charming experience that would have had anyone with anything more than a passing interest in folk-rock singing Fog on the Tyne with all the enthusiasm of Gazza.
This gig was a double whammy of firsts for me. It was both my first trip with The Mic outside of Nottingham and my first time in Sheffield. Though Ria and I only spent a short time in Sheffield, we both vowed to return for more musical action. The city is definitely worth a trip for Nottingham students looking for a slightly different day or evening trip out as the return train ticket is generally an inexpensive one from Nottingham station. Sheffield has a great number of music related venues such as the Leadmill and Record Junkee and has a diverse range of interesting places to eat, drink and keep yourself occupied before a gig.
The atmosphere in the queue outside the venue was very warm and welcoming. When we arrived at the student’s union, we queued up in a line of lovely people who were all very willing to reminisce about their previous experiences with the band (with some people at the gig having last seen Lindisfarne when my parents had would have been toddlers). The gig was a sat down affair with an intermission halfway through the band’s set, (something I’m sure Ria and I felt we could get used to after many hours of standing up at gigs in Nottingham). The intermission was a great way to speak to more Lindisfarne veterans who, once again, were all lovely people eager to share stories about the band.
Lindisfarne are a folk-rock band that saw fairly modest success in the early 70s with their albums Fog on the Tyne and Nicely out of Tune. Despite their greatest commercial achievement being a number 5 placement in the singles chart, the group gained a cult following in their home city of Newcastle and left a significant impact on the city’s music scene. As the plaque of the group’s late frontman Alan Hull will tell you, the group played the city hall on over 120 occasions. For those interested in diving deeper into the band and their late front man, there is a great documentary on the band made by the BBC a few years ago that I highly recommend. Sam Fender plays a prominent role in this documentary, sharing the influence the band had on him at a young age. In this documentary Sting, Mark Knopfler and others sing praises for Alan Hull and Lindisfarne.
Though the current Lindisfarne lineup likely have a significantly higher average age than most bands the Mic review, this was in no way noticeable in the way they sounded. The band felt like it was firing on all cylinders. I don’t think anyone exemplified this more than original member of Lindisfarne, Rod Clements. His instrumental and vocal performances reflected his years of touring experience. His intricate mandolin part from Lady Eleanor, for example, sounded exactly as it does on the studio recording. Clements was a charming figure, frequently deploying witty anecdotes in between songs. Despite a mixture of original and non-original members in the lineup and a range of ages present in the band, each band member very much played to a universal high standard and deserved every round of applause that they were given.
My personal highlight of the evening was Train in G Major. Actually, I’ll correct myself. The song was written by Rod Clements during song-writing sessions for the fog on the Tyne album, but during the gig he remarked that it was actually written in a different key and transposed by Alan Hull to a key that was easier for him to sing in (hence the ‘G Major’ in the song’s name). In a witty tribute to the band’s late singer, the multi-instrumentalist remarked that he was glad he was now able to play the song in the way it was originally written. The performance of Train (as I should probably be calling it instead) was thoroughly enjoyable, with harmonica and slide guitar played with the same accuracy as the studio recording of the track.
Although I’ve been a fan of Lindisfarne for a few years now (only a fraction of the time of most of the people that were at this gig), I largely came to be interested in Lindisfarne thanks to the solo work of Alan Hull. For fans of folk rock, I cannot recommend his solo album Pipedream enough. The son in law of Alan Hull, Dave Hull-Denholm, is in the lineup of current iteration of Lindisfarne. I have to say if you close your eyes the sound of his voice is uncannily like that of his father-in-law, encapsulating the raw power that was present in Hull’s voice.
Over the years it’s clear that the band has managed to accumulate a sizeable arsenal of instruments. The stage was packed with a whole full of a range of instruments including upright basses, mandolins and a range of keyboards and guitars. The wide assortment of instruments used by Lindisfarne really helped each song feel like a departure from the previous song and really gave the gig a varied and rich sonic palette. There was also a well-worked balance between Clements and Hull-Denholm in assuming the role of frontman, with both men dipping in and out seamlessly. This, when combined with the occasional backing vocal from bassist Ian Thompson, allowed for a diverse range of vocal performances to match the wide variety of instruments.
As an overall experience, the gig was an illustration of why the band were (and in my opinion still are) folk-rock masters. All the songs were melodic, intricate but evidently all contained an element of mass appeal that was able to get people rocking and singing in their seats. After seeing them live, it’s no wonder the band continues to have such a dedicated legion of fans.
Ted Culley
Edited by Alice Beard
Images courtesy of Lindisfarne on Facebook
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